The late Anna Craft said that possibility thinking is moving from asking what something is, or does, to asking questions about what something might be or do or become. Possibility thinking is wondering, imagining, asking the question What if….? Possibility thinking is at the heart of creative practice. Possibility thinking is the way that ideas are […] … learn more→

It’s easy to get the idea that research is all about developing a plan, and then doing what you plan. A bit like this. Develop. At the start, you read a lot to help you work out your question or hypothesis. Then you decide how you will get an answer – what methods you will […] … learn more→

I was recently reviewing a paper and saw my own work cited. Very nice, you might think. However, I was cited for saying a thing that I didn’t say – a thing that I would never ever say. It was a thing that I have railed against in almost everything I’ve written on the topic. […] … learn more→

How can you earn 7.5 million Norwegian crowns (about €660,000) with mathematics? If you are thinking about something like “discovering the fault of a roulette wheel” or “counting cards”, I am sorry to disappoint you: the probability in these cases is usually against us, no matter how much the cinema insists on stating the opposite. […] … learn more→

A groundbreaking announcement for the recovery of lost ancient literature was recently made. Using a non-invasive method that harnesses machine learning, an international trio of scholars retrieved 15 columns of ancient Greek text from within a carbonized papyrus from Herculaneum, a seaside Roman town eight kilometres southeast of Naples, Italy. Their achievement earned them a US$700,000 grand […] … learn more→

In the 1800s, British colonists in India set about trying to reduce the cobra population, which was making life and trade very difficult in Delhi. They began to pay a bounty for dead cobras. The strategy very quickly resulted in the widespread breeding of cobras for cash. This danger of unintended consequences is sometimes referred to […] … learn more→

Human Anatomy is a basic subject in all studies in health sciences. Knowledge of the human body is key to developing good clinical practice: it improves understanding of pathology and skill in certain procedures in different disciplines, such as medicine, nursing, physiotherapy or psychology, among others. Until a few years ago, their learning was based on […] … learn more→

Over the last decade, we’ve written a lot of words about how to get research funders to say ‘yes’. I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about who can say ‘no’ to you applying for a grant. I want to talk about the people who can stop you from applying. First, a caveat: your […] … learn more→

Knowledge matters. It informs how we think about the world around us. It informs our decisions and government policies, supporting economic growth and development. Knowledge is also power. Certain types of knowledge are given more value than others. This is driven by histories of privilege. In South Africa, apartheid looms large in debates about how knowledge is produced. […] … learn more→

We all want to do research that matters. Right? Surely no one out there wants to spend a load of time and energy doing research that is of no value, that nobody will take any notice of and that won’t make an iota of difference to anyone anywhere? Why do that? Of course, there is a […] … learn more→